Numerous compositions such as pigments are commercially available that create variations in color by changing the angle of observation or by changing the angle of incident light upon the pigment. For example, it is a known practice to use diffracting pigments in nail varnish compositions to produce a rainbow effect. These pigments are sold, for example, by the company Flex Products under the name SPECTRAFLAIR™. Along with the diffracting pigments, Flex Products sells high quality interference pigments under the name CHROMAFLAIR™. Such pigments are used in ink and paint and have been used as paint on cars and boats and have been used as a coating on cell phones and children's toys and as ink on currency.
These interference pigments may have a layer structure such as Cr/MgF2/Al/MgF2/Cr, which would yield a color shifting flake when viewed from either side of the pigment flake, as the structure is symmetrical.
When producing CHROMAFLAIR™ or similar special effect pigments, an organic substrate foil having a release layer is further coated upon the release layer with sequential layers of Cr/MgF2/Al/MgF2/Cr.
Turning now to FIG. 1 a prior art view is shown of a simple conventional system for obtaining flakes from a roll of thin-film material comprising a layer of organic poly(ethylene terephthalate), polymethacrylate, or poly(vinylbutyral film 14a having a basic five layer Fabry-Perot structure 12c coated thereon. The Fabry-Perot structure 12c comprises a reflector layer 14b, two dielectric layers 14c, and two absorber layers 14d deposited upon an acetone soluble release layer on the film 14a. During production of the flakes, the roll of coated film 10 is submersed in a bath of acetone which loosens the coating 12c and a wiper blade 16 aids in removing flakes 12d of the coating 12c which fall into the solution and which can be collected and dried.
The flakes 12d that separate from the film 14a are in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be ground into smaller particles in an attempt to provide small, substantially uniform particle sizes. Of course this process cannot accurately produce uniform particles without some variance in size of particles.
After the flakes have been removed from the film 14a, the film is discarded and the flakes are harvested and dried for use in paints and inks.
This invention provides a method and product which uses the substrate 14a as a temporary support for coatings to be deposited thereon, similar to conventional deposition for producing flake material as described above; however, this invention simultaneously or subsequently, provides a secondary byproduct, glitter, by re-using the substrate material rather than discarding it.
Glitter is nearly ubiquitous throughout the world and is used to decorate packaging, clothing, the human body, sporting goods, and many other articles. Glitter, which is a plurality of particles having a regular or irregular periphery, is known in forms that include light reflecting or light refracting material. For example glitter is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. RE 31,780 (Cooper et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,067 (Coffey et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,584 (Cooper et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,657 (Melendy et al.)).
Materials useful as glitter include particles of metal such as aluminum, copper, silver, gold, brass and particles of transparent or colored, solid organic materials such as poly(ethylene terephthalate), polymethacrylate, and poly(vinylbutyral), and particles of metal coated film or paper (e.g., aluminum coated poly(ethylene terephthalate) film).
Glitter may be clear or may be provided in a variety of colors such as silver, gold, blue, red, etc., or mixtures thereof; and may be provided in a variety of shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, diamonds, stars, symbols, alphanumerics (i.e., letters and/or numbers), or mixtures of different shapes.
What is most noticeable about articles coated with glitter is that they tend to glitter or sparkle even when the light source, the coated article, and the observer are relatively stationary. Relative movement between the light source, coated article and observer is not required to perceive the glittery appearance of coated articles. The glittery effect comes from their relatively large size and a misalignment of the reflective glitter flakes or particles. However, when relative movement is present, glitter-coated article tends to sparkle in a dynamic manner and the location from where the sparkling effect appears seems to constantly change with movement. Glitter is most noticeable when the glitter flakes are opaque; hence, most glitter is formed of an opaque reflective material.
Glitter is commercially available in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. However, for a pleasing visual effect, it is also preferable for glitter flakes to be cut into the same size and shape. Since the human eye can barely perceive any glittery effect of reflective particles that are 20 microns in size or less, true glitter particles tend to be larger than 50 microns in diameter and many glitter flakes have diameters of 150 microns or more. Having some particles that are too large and significantly larger than other adjacent particles lessens the interesting effect that glitter provides, as the eye tends to focus momentarily on the larger particles distracting the viewer. In contrast, if particles are too small, they simply take up valuable space without providing any perceivable glittery effect.
Although the process for making glitter and making flake material such as SPECTRAFLAIR™ or CHROMAFLAIR™ or other visually appealing specialty flake material is completely different, this invention couples these products together through a novel manufacturing process, wherein a reflective coated substrate serves as a temporary carrier for one or more releasable deposited layers which form flakes, and wherein the reflective coated substrate is subsequently turned into glitter.
This invention further provides embodiments wherein a diffractive or special stamped substrate is used to make diffractive or stamped glitter having a holographic structure or symbol on glitter flakes and wherein flake material is first removed having imprinted thereon, the signature of the stamped substrate.
The environmental benefits of this invention are significant, since the glitter is made from used substrate material that otherwise had little or no use after producing the highly desired pigment flake material. Therefore this invention provides a means in which what may otherwise be refuse, can be reused or cut into pieces having a predetermined shape and size to make glitter, as opposed to manufacturing a substrate specifically for glitter.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a flake material having one or more layers, and for producing separate glitter flakes of a uniform size and shape.